Senate confirms more than 60 Obama nominees

By
Ed O'Keefe

Senators confirmed more than 60 Obama administration nominees Tuesday after months of disagreement on how to proceed with the confirmation of picks for the National Labor Relations Board.

Settling a dispute that began before the May recess, Senators approved NLRB Democratic nominee Mark Pearce and Republican Brian Hayes. But they did not vote to confirm Craig Becker, a former labor union lawyer given a recess appointment to NLRB by President Obama in March.

The decision means Becker may have to step down in late 2011 when his recess appointment ends.

Others earning Senate approval Tuesday include Don Cazayoux, a former Louisiana Democratic congressman tapped to serve as U.S. Marshal for the Pelican State. Several federal judges, U.S. attorneys, nominees for federal boards, councils and commissions and deputy and assistant positions at the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services also earned confirmations.

Thanks for the timely posting, but the reference to inclusion of "Several federal judges" is somewhat misleading. The Senatus blog has posted the list of confirmed nominees and only three judges for the local court-the Superior Court of the District of Columbia- are included.

What is unprecedented is that many judicial nominees who were unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee long ago are still being blocked by secret holds.

My Judging the Environment website has thousands of links to Senator statements, editorials, and more on Supreme Court and other federal judicial nominations and related issues such as access to courts.

It's 2010. Is He even close to filling the vacancies or is He just waiting for Sarah Palin to do it for him?

Posted by: seraphina21 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I am not even sure how to respond to this post. You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. Let's see if I can enlighten you. President Obama NOMINATES appointees and the Senate has to CONFIRM them. All of these people and hundreds more were nominated by President Obama over a year ago. In the confirmation process even one dissenter can put a hold on a nominees confirmation indefinitely. That is what has happened. The REPUBLICANS are putting holds on the confirmations so these positions sit empty. Believe me, If President Obama had the power alone to fill these vacancies, it would have been done and over with a long time ago. It really bothers me when people who have absolutely no inkling of how something works insist on screaming their ignorance out for the whole world to hear!

seraphina21 - "Republicans are aggressively using an abusive practice known as the "secret hold" that allows a single senator to anonymously stall presidential appointments and legislation. Dozens of the president's key executive and judicial appointments have been stymied, most by Republican senators who refuse to take responsibility for their actions. This practice is anathema to government transparency and accountability and needs to be abolished.

To get some idea of how excessively this underhanded tool is being employed against Obama, at this point in George W. Bush's presidency there were only 13 nominations pending in the Senate for more than two days. Obama has 120 nominees in that predicament, with most under a secret hold."

Now, seraphina, before you accuse me of quoting from a "leftist, liberal media outlet" let me explain that this is from a Florida newspaper. You remember Florida, right? The state where Jeb Bush stole the presidency for his big bro? Not exactly a democrat stronghold!